Cancer

I had never expected that I will be a victim of cancer, based on family history. My family and relatives have other health conditions but not cancer. How wrong I was!

Sep 2006 - I had felt pins and needles (pulling and poking) kind of sensation on my right breast. Sometime in 2005, I had the same kind of sensation but it had gone away after a short while and I did not give it much thought, for I am one who is not in the habit of running to a specialist over every minor pain. I tend to ignore the small irritations as part and parcel of life. This time, the sensation did not seem to go away and was getting more intense. I could not ignore it, especially after my neighbour told me that she just had a mastectomy recently. She had been getting the pins and needles sensation and a checkup leading to a mastectomy confirmed that it was cancer.

End Sep 2006 - I went for a mammogram. A week later, I received a letter asking me to go to National Cancer Centre (NCC) for further tests. An appointment was fixed for the middle of Oct 2006. I was told to be prepared to spend several hours there.

I was getting worried. I trawled the internet and came across an article on fibrocystic condition. This is a very common condition and usually caused pain. Right - everybody says cancer is pea-sized lumps that can be felt and is not painful. The article said cutting off coffee, tea and sugar can ease the fibrocystic condition, but it also advised having a checkup just to be sure. I immediately cut off coffee, tea and sugar and true enough the pain was gone. But the hard mass was still there.

I dug for information on breast cancer, the pros and cons of conventional treatments and alternative/natural treatments. I had been subscribing to health news letters and cancer was a hot topic. Almost everybody else apart from drug companies and doctors trained in conventional medicines talked of the bad effects of conventional treatment, like chemotherapy, radiation and drugs. One such free newsletter is The Moss Reports written by Ralph W Moss, PhD, who, according to the Sunday Times, London, is "an expert on alternative cancer therapies".

By now I had made up my mind that surgery was the furthest I will go and after that I would be going for natural therapies. I had also found out that biopsy is not necessarily good because it involved puncturing the tumour which will allow the cancer cells to spread.

Mid Oct 2006 - I had a more thorough mammogram done followed by an ultrasound scan. The prognosis was not good. The scan picked up "extent of calcifications as 50mm". I had a 5cm tumour! The surgical oncologist (surgeon) wanted me to go for a biopsy. I was very unwilling but was out-talked into it. I had been there since 9 am and it was then 1 pm. I was alone, tired, anxious, worried and somehow did not find the energy to stand my ground against a biopsy. I was also not given time to consider. I was told to have a quick bite and be back in half an hour for the biopsy. A few bites was all I managed. I needed to talk and called a very close friend whom I had been updating on my condition.

Up till then, only my two girls, a close cousin and a close friend were aware of my condition. I had sworn my girls to secrecy because my eldest was preparing for his 'A' levels and I did not want him to be distracted.

Whew! That sure was a long-winded one.